Saturday, March 07, 2009

Today's Vocab Lesson 2

A Given Name : A person's given name is that person's first name. ( Tony Blair's given name is Tony ).

A Surname : A person's surname is that person's last or family name. ( Nelson Mandela's surname is Mandela ).

A Middle Name : A middle name is a name between the first name and the last name. ( Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's middle name was Amadeus ).

A Pseudonym : A pseudonym, or pen name, is a name used by writers who do not want to use real name. ( Samuel Clemens' pseudonym was Mark Twain ).

A Nickname : A nickname is a special name often used instead of a given name. ( When i was a child, my nickname was Red because I had red hair ).

A Title : A title is a formal attachment--for example, doctor or professor--to a person's name, usually given as a sugn of respect. ( Sigmund Freud's title was Dr. Freud ).

Named After, Named For : A person who is named after ( for ) another person has the same name as that person. This is usually done to honor the original person. ( I was named after ( for ) my grandfather on my mother's side).

Senior : The word senior placed after a man's name means that he has a son with exactly the same given name. ( Clifford Taylor Sr. was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1940 ).

Junior : The word junior placed after a man's name means that he has a father with exactly the same given name. ( Clifford Taylor Jr. was Born in Washington, D.C., in 1971).

For Short : The phrase for short attached to a name means that the name is a shorter form of a longer name. ( We named our son Daniel, or Dan for short ).

An Alias : An alias is a special name used by someone who does not wish his or her real name to be known. ( Detectives, spies and criminals often go by aliases ).